Well I was just contacted by AA, and they will be flying me down for an interview for an internship in flight ops. Any suggustions on what to wear or bring. I heard a blue suit is appropriate, becuase the pilots wear blue suits. All I have is a gray suit. (and a black tuxedo coat and pants) Has anyone else gone through an interview with AA, or for an internship? They haven't gotten back to me yet about when I'm coming, but I should find out soon. Thanks

I'm pretty sure that any color suit would be appropriate. No, I take that back. Any appropriate colored suit would be appropriate. From what I heard, the corporate world has something against fuschia suits.

Good luck though.

United 717 heavy, you're facing the wrong way. Any chance you can powerback to get off of my deice pad?

It's an internship, not a job. If there is any compensation involved, I'd be surprised. That usually is not the case. Wear your grey suit, unless you want to splurge on a blue one. It's not like you are going to a F/O interview where everyone is in a blue suit with a red power tie. Check out Flightinfo.com, there are several people there who have done the internship. Here's a thread about the topic- http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=10304&highlight=internship+American

Saxman66, an internship with AE would do you better as you could probably get a F/O job not too long after you graduate if you do well there. Is it definately AA where you are doing your internship and not AE?

The interview is for AA, not AE. I know a AE would be better if they offered a program. But most majors offer an internship program. It will most likely garantee an interview with AE however. I'm just applying for everything, ExpressJet, AA, Independence Air, Alaska, Southwest, Northwest. Its pretty competitive for these programs so I need to keep my options open. I'll any internship if it comes down to it. (they all give me jumpseat options too)

Grey suit is fine. That's what I wore for my AA internship interview. And I got the internship.

American Eagle/American Airlines internships are all selected together. You won't know which side you're on until you start your internship. The departments/positions are selected basically at random.

Bring an updated copy of your resume. Bring patience and a good attitude. You'll probably be interviewed by L.... Don't let her get to you. She's just like that all the time.

A current intern will probably sit in on the interview, and depending on your return flight times, will show you around afterward in the flight academy and potentially over at the airline terminal if that is where they work.

Know a lot about American Airlines. Know the CEO, President. Know what all the pilot bases are. Know all the aircraft types operated. Know what yield management is. Be prepared to answer a few basic flight knowledge questions, like types of icing or what is adverse yaw. The questions change of course, but just be prepared to answer stuff like you'd see on a commercial written.

All the positions are unpaid. Usually there's one assigned to the chief pilot's office at St. Louis (but with the pullback, that may not be an option anymore). The rest are in Dallas. This will be personally expensive for you. Basically be prepared to spend about $5000 over the semester in apartment rent, furniture rental, food, hotels on trips, etc. The positions in Dallas are in various flight operations-type departments, and sometimes more than one intern is assigned to a department. Flight ops technical, flight administration, publications, training, chief pilots office are all positions at AA. Eagle has safety, chief pilots office, fleet captain technical, training. Everybody agreed that the Eagle interns get more out of it and are definately utilized more. Some at AA, like in publications, did nothing but issue ID badges and file charts. The biggest event in their day was lunch.

The jumpseating is great, and you'll meet a lot of great people. Some crew members outright hate interns, and won't be shy in telling you that. You'll get denied sometimes, but just take it in stride, thank them, and move on. I found the people at Eagle a lot more friendly toward interns, but your experience may vary.

Take extra and I mean extra copies of your resume in your briefcase, have copies of references already typed up and ready to hand out. Have all the information needed to fill out an application, such as dates phone numbers of other jobs. Grey suit is fine, pair it up with a white shirt and conservative tie, polished shoes, matching socks and you will be fine. Hair cleaned and cut, freshly shaven, finger nails cut and clean..... You only get one chance to make a first impression. Get business cards of the people you talk with and once home send a brief thank you note for the interview (either snail mail or better yet email it off), use that time to reiterate some of the key points they mentioned to you and also to stress why you are the right person for the position. Use spell checker prior to sending.

You made a great point about the thank you notes, and particularly the use of spell checker. AA can be rather picky about the little things. “Oh, a misspelled word. This guy must be RETARDED or something. NEXT!”